The Social Atlas series consists of a separate publication for each state and territory that presents colour maps that highlight key characteristics of the population in each capital city and selected regional areas. The maps depict social, economic and housing characteristics based on data collected in the 2006 Census of Population and Housing. This information shows the diversity that exists across Australia's cities and regional centres. The maps are easy to interpret as the distribution of the data are represented by different colours and shading. Brief commentary explaining the main features and characteristics also accompany each map.

To provide some consistency between atlases, each publication includes a common set of maps for the capital city areas covering topics such as population, cultural diversity, education, labour force, income, families, households and dwellings. Also, each Social Atlas includes additional maps that highlight any unique attributes pertaining to the particular capital city. A smaller selection of maps are included for the selected regional centres and these vary from Atlas to Atlas.